Hartstone at NABOB on the art of the deal
If you don't a thorough understanding of all aspects of a prospective broadcast deal before going to the money people, "You're going to miss the strike zone by a country mile." So said Joel Hartstone of Stonegate Capital at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters session of station trading and finance last week (9/10/04). Here are the ducks he feels need to be in their appropriate row.

TVBR observation: If you want to become a station owner, this is the kind of advice you need to pay attention to. Over the years we've seen many people who know a lot about radio run into a brick wall when they tried to become a station owner - - because they didn't learn how the finances of ownership work before they tried to put together a deal. Worse yet, we've seen some who managed to buy a station without really understanding the financial equation and, as a consequence, saw their dream implode. Don't let that happen to you. | More... |

TV stocks were mixed. Top honors on the up side went to Paxson, up 4.9%, and News Corp., up 3.5%. After receiving downgrades from BofA Securities (see TV News), Belo was down 2%, Hearst-Argyle 0.6% and LIN1%.

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The story is in today's Washington Beat, but we already have a comment from a reader.

The FCC has finally released the list of applicants for the new FM channels in Auction 37. Well... sort of. The way the Public Notice is written, it can take hours of research just to find out how many applicants filed on a particular channel. Why couldn't they put out a list by market showing the applicants? And why is it that almost half of the applications are listed as incomplete? Could it be that the auction process is so convoluted that even high-priced D.C. attorneys can't figure it out? My application was listed as incomplete because it had a post office box. But that's the only addresses we have in American Samoa. There are no street names and no numbers. I guess I could put down "next to the big coconut tree", but that's not a deliverable address either. There has got to be a better way to do this!

Larry Fuss, President
South Seas Broadcasting, Inc.
KKHJ-FM & WVUV-AM
Pago Pago, American Samoa

Mr. Meyrowitz
goes to Washington
OK, so he's already in DC as GSM, but Tribune has promoted Eric Meyrowitz to VP/GM of WBDC-TV (Ch. 50, WB). He succeeds Jerry Martin, who was recently sent to Indianapolis (8/11/04 TVBR Daily Epaper #156).

Wilk joins
Hearst-Argyle
Long-time WTTG-TV Washington Managing Editor Wendy Wilk has joined Hearst-Argyle as Washington Bureau Chief. She succeeds Fred Young, who is leaving to form a book publishing company.

Dolgin says yes to YES
Former Fox Sports Net executive Tracy Dolgin has been named CEO of YES Network, the cable outlet of the New York Yankees.

First reported here
in Tuesday's Bulletin Consolidation within
the radio consolidator:
CCU merging Premiere and CC Advantage operations into Katz
You read it here first - - in Tuesday's RBR/TVBR Bulletin that Clear Channel is putting Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Advantage under Katz Media Group CEO Stu Olds. Premiere will keep its name, but CEO Kraig Kitchin will report to Olds. CC Advantage will merge with Katz Dimension, with the whole thing to be called Clear Channel Katz Advantage. It's not really a complete merger, but a lot is changing. See inside for the details. TVBR Observation: Katz has no history in programming. The original TranStar Radio Network (now part of Westwood One) was lost on Stu Olds' watch. CCU has still never successfully consolidated all the pieces of their empire - - Outdoor, Internet, network radio, concerts and spot. Perhaps this is another attempt at it. CCU is the only company that has the potential to compete on a national level with the Yahoos, the MTVs, etc, in order to put demand-side pressure on the inventory. Until they can do this, this industry is going to flounder. The question: are Stu Olds and Bonnie Press the people who can do this? | More... |

Complimentary Report
No more Forward Pacing Reports.
We have the economic, political, and close up look at your 4th quarter of business and what must be done to hit budget by year's end.

GM of Cadillac, Mark LaNeve
tells it like it is on where he
spends ad dollars.

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Olympics send Gannett
TV revenues soaring
Talk about getting a bump from the Summer Olympics! 13 of Gannett's 21 TV stations are NBC affiliates, so it saw TV revenues jump 36.9% in August, with local up 27.8% and national 54.5%. Including recently acquired Captivate (an elevator TV screen ad business), August revenues for the TV division were up 37.5% to 77 million dollars. Based on current pacings, Gannett said it expects Q3 TV revenues to be up in the mid to high teens.
TVBR observation: With those results wonder how NBC really made out on both sides of TV - their affiliates and O&O's plus the cable outlets. Viewers saw many events via cable that they only heard about before like badminton and lots of volleyball. But this bump is once every four years. But it demonstrates the need for content and presentation. 09/14/04 TVBR #179

RBC warns investors of
soft radio revenues
David Bank is warning investors that radio revenues are pacing behind his previous expectations for Q3 - - and that Q4 is worrisome as well. In a note which headlined that Q3 for radio came in "like a lamb" and appears to be going out the same way. RBR observation: Heads up people because the fourth Q is at risk. Now you can not point any finger at Naples, FL or Barron's or Forbes. Best read further on.
09/14/04 TVBR #179